Frontier World Armours
“I’ve heard the vast number of hivers will never see the sky of their own home world, save once perhaps, the day they leave it forever as a member of the Imperial Guard. Having spent the greater bulk of my life under hostile alien skies that have frequently tried to kill me, I can say with some confidence that they haven’t missed a thing.” — Nikus Monns, Mercenary. Environmental Body Glove The rare travellers of the Imperium often despair over the many environments they must prepare for as they travel between systems. Bulky void suits are frequently impractical, especially when a given world’s atmosphere is known to be merely unpleasant as opposed to fatal, and few are the sealed suits that actually provide any armour to their wearers. Travellers on the frontier have an especially difficult time of it, for if they discover a planet with unexpected environmental conditions, the proper equipment may be long months or even years of travel away. Several of the worthies of the various Malfian noble houses decided that the situation was intolerable and set about designing a series of body gloves designed to withstand multiple extreme conditions while still maintaining their wearer in relative comfort. The suits were a great success and various models are produced in small quantities on Malfi, Vaxanide, and Scintilla. “Environmental body glove” is a generic name for a wide variety of suits. Most are actually named after the house line that produces them, such as the “Mariette Envelope” or the “Hax Hostile” field body glove. Environmental body gloves are full body suits designed to sustain their wearers at a constant temperature, despite external conditions, making them ideal as outerwear for desert worlds and a useful inner layer for particularly cold environments. Pockets within the suits recycle sweat and other bodily fluids, cooling or warming them as necessary, in order to regulate temperature and provide emergency water rations. The suits are waterproof, which makes them useful in marshy terrain and capable of doubling as a wetsuit when necessary. Environmental body gloves add +1 Armour Point to all locations and grant a +10 bonus on Survival Tests Such suits are almost invariably equipped with a re-breather, comm-bead and photo-contacts. Slither Boots There are a number of polluted environments within the Calixis Sector where the very soil itself is both destructive and toxic. Whether one has to trudge within the salt-fens of Acreage, over the acid storm wastes of Grangold, or through one of the deadly slime jungles of Vaxanide, the journey will be a short one if the ground itself eats away a traveller’s footwear directly exposing them to their surrounding’s toxicity—a common and frequently deadly occurrence for the unprepared. The destitute that live within such places cope as best they can, whilst the wealthy few acquire slither boots. Slither boots are highly advanced footwear, incorporating a variety of materials including ceramite-woven leather and a circuitry embedded inner frame. Slither boots are designed to withstand the most hostile of environments, releasing chemicals to shield the wearer from acidic and alkaline environments. Slither boots do not slip; regardless of how tractionless a surface may seem, small tendrils emerge from the soles of the boots to help compensate for the movements of their wearer. Slither boots provide a +10 bonus to Agility Tests made to maintain footing in treacherous or slick conditions and provide 6 AP (Legs) versus corrosives. Wind Armour A seemingly fanciful name for a suit of protective gear that deals with a very real problem, wind armour is produced by the Fane of Doru on Scintilla for the many worlds of the Calixis Sector that boast powerful storms. The infamous Splinter Winds of Barsapine travel at over 700 kilometres an hour and are more than capable of stripping a lightly armoured person to bone in less than 30 seconds. Against such force, even void shields are hard pressed to cope. Realizing that standing against the wind was ultimately foolhardy, the designers came up with a clever idea of creating a series of auto-reactive ceramsteel plates that would redirect wind force, allowing an individual to advance in lighter dust storms and, at the least, survive in the heavier ones. Wind armour is formed from fully enclosed suits of medium articulated carapace. They incorporate a series of heavy air filters with a re-breather connected to an extra tank, allowing a wearer to breathe normally in all but the heaviest storms, with three full hours of breath should they be completely buried in dust. Each suit also has an inbuilt vox-system along with a photo-visor. Wind armour was primarily designed to defend its wearer from harsh environmental conditions, not opponents. While it is popular with explorers, it isn’t nearly as useful in a fight as many other armours of similar class. The wearer is immune to environmental effects of strong wind and dire storms. Category:Armour